Using wind energy is much more environmentally friendly that burning fossil fuels such as coal and oil. This however doesn't mean that using wind turbines is always positive for environment and through this article I will mention certain environmental issues connected with using wind turbines.

The negative story about wind turbines usually starts with noise as wind turbine opponents often say that large wind turbines create excessive noise pollution levels. It is true that big wind turbines with large blades can produce excessive noise levels and despite the technological advancement over the recent yeers the noise levels connected with large wind turbines pretty much remained the same. The noise pollution therefore remains the biggest environmental issue connected with wind turbines.

Large wind turbines can also hurt wildlife because birds can be caught by their blades. Birds are not the only animals that can be hurt by wind turbines. The animals that live underground can also be hurt because large wind turbines require very deep foundations meaning that their habitats might be destroyed in the process.

Some also complain about the visual look of turbines by claiming that they interfere with the image of perfect natural landscape as they do not fit in the visual appearance of certain area. The question of aesthetics is really a matter of personal opinion, so I'll not debate about this issue any longer.

So as you can see using wind turbines can also have negative environmental impact but this is definitely not the reason to move away from wind power. The currently dominant fossil fuels such as coal and oil create much bigger environmental damage in form of climate change and air pollution so the environmental damage coming from wind turbines is really negligible compared to environmental damage coming from fossil fuel fired power plants.

This means that replacing fossil fuels with wind energy is much more positive to our environment than sticking with fossil fuels. Of course, the science should still be looking for solutions to make wind turbines more environmentally friendly by reducing their noise output as well as equipping them with suitable equipment (such as radars) in order to prevent bird killings.

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